In Our Opinion: The Top Gaming Anti Heroes

Anti Heroes…

What would gaming be without them? There is only one thing we here at Bagogames.com enjoy more than a good villain, aside more readers that is, and that is an awesomely bad hero! You know, those who tread the moral grey in the name of the greater good and all that! Or those who just go totally god damn postal and manage to dice up a few of the worlds greatest assholes along the way. Whatever words; its the results we care for, not the collateral. That said who exactly is the greatest Anti Heroes in the gaming industry? Correct answer; who the hell knows, but here’s a list of five Anti Heroes who could probably take the crown. Minor spoilers ahead.

Number Seven

The Prime Conduit, Cole MacGrath

MacGrath loses points because you, the player, have the choice to become either a Saint or a Sinner. However there is no doubt of his place here on this list when you consider the seven rings of hell he unleashes throughout, and post, inFamous 2! This walking power house takes, does and acts as he pleases with little to no regard to public opinion. No matter who gets in the way, spoiler hint. His finest moment? Becoming the modern day equal to a god.

Number Six

The Cursed Knight, Gabriel Belmont

Alas, we begin our trek into the anti heroes with perhaps our most tragic entry. Gabriel’s wife is dead, slain by some unknown fiend, and so in hope of turning back the hands of death he ventures to collect the three pieces of an ancient, but powerful, mask from three powerful Lords of Shadow. But its not his tragic journey that has earned Gabriel his place here, but his transformation from Holy and proud knight to a dark and desperate man capable of destroying anyone, or anything, which stands in his way; albeit at the price of his own humanity. His finest moment? Grabbing destiny by the bollocks and saving the world, all in a day’s work.

Number Five

The Raging Otaku, Travis Touchdown

  Awesome name aside Travis has shown complete aversion to all authority all because a piece o’ skirt gave him giant rod, oh yes I went there. Granted the plot is much more complicated than that but the general consensus proclaims that Suda 51’s perennially broke Anti Hero seems like a twisted character experiment devised to test just how far you can push the Anti Hero trope while at the same time delivering one hell of an entertaining game. His finest moment? Downward dog, google it.

Number Four

The Walking Biohazard; Alex Mercer

 Alex Mercer wakes up in a morgue with no memory, and so to compensate for this he decides to dice and murder everything that he deems associated with his past life. Despite not having the most memorable of games Mercer stuck with me as one of the most memorable characters of the noughties, if only because you can drop kick an Apache out of the sky, the freaking sky man! He’s a not so classic case of murder everyone, murder some more and then assimilate any remaining survivor so you get to skip the Q&A. So flawed is his character that he even has the audacity to ask if he is ‘doing the right thing’ while ploughing down the American Avenue pavement in a freaking tank. TANK! His finest moment? Unleashing a deadly virus on one third of Manhattan and then personally finishing off the rest by a variety of means.

Number Three

The Outlaw, John Marston

 John Marston is a good man, but he’s done some bad things. So when his family are taken into custody by a federal agent he has no choice but to pick up his gun and hunt down the men he once called family. John moral stance is for the player to decide, but no amount of good deeds make up for a life of crime, even if it was morally justified. In the end, it’s his aversion to authority and will and do what needs to be done in order to protect what is dearest to him that makes him a suitable candidate for number three. What else is more dangerous than a man with everything to lose? His finest moment? Last stand, no more shall be said.

Number Two

The Man With Nothing Left to Lose, Max Payne

To answer that last question, the man with nothing to lose. Before we get into it I pose a question; who in the hell messes with someone called Max Payne? No family, no friends, no past and no future. Max is grit personified. How many men did this guy kill? We imagine internal affairs looked at the bodycount and just decided ‘let’s not go there.’ The man of internal monologue burned through the New York underworld in forty eight hours, collateral be damned, in a mission of revenge. Max’s in-penetrable determination is only matched by his insatiable appetite for pain killers, all while he eulogises 90% of the New York underword in stunning bullet time action. We here at Bagogames hope that Max Payne 3 doesn’t disappoint. His finest moment? Taking several shots in the chest, thrown into a pit and then a final hallow point to the skull before going on to finish the game without so much as a bad headache. You try it, we dare you. Drum roll please!

Number One

The God of War, Kratos

Pick a God of War game, any of them, and at least play through the tutorial. Go on, I’ll wait. Finished? Good. As you can easily see, Kratos is one sick, nasty, twisted and violent little puppy. Often prone to regional genocide without so much as the slightest provocation. We already mentioned John Marston’s aversion to authority, but he has nothing on Kratos. The guy climbed Olympus with his bare hands to brutally end Zeus, and this is after he eviscerated every other god on the way up. His finest moment? Wow, take your pick. Do we start with the routine escape from hell or skip and focus on the undiscriminating path of destruction he tears across the face of Olympus? Choices, choices.

Well folks thank you for reading, and no we offer no refunds for the time you gave us. If you disagree with our ensemble cast of badass why don’t you add your opinion in the comment box below, please?